After you leave the plywood store, how do you store your plywood?

Written by: Michael Blakley - Director of Marketing

That’s a fundamental question we felt deserved a brief discussion, including some useful tips from our own Quality Control Engineer here at States Industries. So, we start out with the basic properties of wood in general and since it is simply a dynamic, incredible fibrous product of nature, it will behave in some of the ways you might expect: it will expand and contract depending on temperature and humidity and depending on a host of other conditions that can happen in your garage, storage shed, in the back of your pick-up truck or in your home.

As States’ Quality Engineer Blake Holton remarks: “When it comes to heat, cold, humidity and moisture, all wood reaches equilibrium in response to those conditions.”

But in the case of plywood, an engineered building material, it is specially designed to minimize some of these issues. Plywood, as it is manufactured, is a more balanced construction, with the use of inner plies, specific lay-up processes, and the use of several thin or thick panels known as substrates, all pressed together with special glue types. And it is the orientation of these inner ply “sandwiches” that will help restrain roughly 90% of typical wood movement.

This is true with construction grade plywood as it is with hardwood plywood which is used exclusively for interior and decorative application. And so it is in the case of hardwood decorative plywood that we would like to offer these storage tips:

1.  Store or stack flat, if at all possible. Lay it on some type of support surface (linear strips of wood to keep it off the floor surface).  If you must place the pieces or panels on edge, put a protective surface underneath to prevent chipping, gouging or denting part of the delicate veneer face or back.

2.  Store it in a dry area, preferably indoors, free from moisture, dirt, oily surfaces or where bugs might hang out.

3.  Try and store it in the same area you will be using the wood, just as you might store new wood flooring strips in the room it is designed to be installed in.

4.  Keep the surfaces clean, remove dust or grit carefully with a soft-bristled brush, (really soft) or smooth cloth and be careful not to rub too hard.  Always dust or soft-sweep the surface in the same direction as the grain pattern of the wood.

Do you have any storage tips that you'd like to share? Please leave a comment below! Let us know if you have any questions and always remember to use safety glasses and ear protection when cutting or machining wood.

Happy woodworking!